Ameca Part 1 of 2: A pretty colonial town in a lush valley

 

The Ameca's Plaza Principal is large, with extensive gardens.  Three sides of the Plaza are bordered by beautiful old buildings from the colonial era or the 19th century. I found Ameca's Centro (Center) to be the most attractive and interesting part. Full of old structures that are steeped in local history and culture, it is easy to walk around, while savoring the sights, sounds, and smells.

Small motorbikes like those in the foreground are popular in many Mexican towns. They are cheap, park easily, and use very little gasoline. The bikes often transport as many as four people, including mom, dad, and two kids.  The maneuvers they use while zipping through traffic are hair-raising. Carole and I first visited Ameca in 2013. Then, in 2015, I led a group tour which included an overnight stay in the city. The photos in this series are from both visits. 

Overview

Ameca is located west of Lago de Chapala and Guadalajara. From Ajijic, where I live, Ameca is about 1.5 hours drive. There are several routes you can take, but the shortest is west along the Lake's north shore to Jocotopec. Take the Jocotopec bypass to Highway 15, then head toward Guadalajara. When you get to the Guadalajara-Colima highway, turn toward Colima. 

Stay alert, because in less than a mile you exit that highway to the right at the sign for Highway 80 (Colima Libre) toward Barra de Navidad. Stay on Highway 80 and follow the signs to Villa Corona. About 13km (8mi) past Villa Corona, you come to a stoplight at Cofradia de la Luz. 

Take a right at the stoplight toward La Sauceda. Continue for 36.4km (22.6mi) to Highway 70, where you make a left toward Ameca, which is 22.7km (14mi) to the west. Once you reach Ameca, look for a large green sign that points to the right toward Ameca Centro.

View across Ameca toward Cerro de Águila. The English translation of Cerro de Águila is Eagle Mountain, but the original Nahuatl name is Cuahtepetl. The mountain is part of a range to the north of the city that separates Valle de Ameca from the valley containing the famous town of Tequila. 

The Ameca Valley is large and lush and consequently was settled by the Spanish early in the Conquest era. Prior to the Mexican Revolution, the Ameca Valley contained more than two dozen haciendas. They supplied grain, beef, horses, leather products and other goods to Guadalajara.

Ameca is the chief city of the municipio (equivalent to a US county) which surrounds it and shares its name. Municipio Ameca covers 685.7 square kilometers (426 sq.mi.) and has a population of over 57,000. The City of Ameca makes up about 36,000 of that total. 

The Rio Ameca runs through the southern portion of the city and is the source of the city's original name: Amecatl (Nahuatl for "string of water"). Ameca's economic base is still much the same as it was in the colonial era: ranching, agriculture and agriculture-related industries such as sugar refining. 

Meet one of Ameca's Tourist Police. He approached us as we walked about the Plaza and offered to be our guide. It was a great arrangement, because we saw a lot more than the ordinary tourist might. His uniform got us immediate access to all sorts of unusual places. 

Above, the door he has just opened leads into an ancient spiral staircase that takes you up to the Parroquia's roof and campanario (belltower). From there, we could closely inspect the old bells and enjoy a spectacular view of the city and the mountains around it. I took the photo of Cerro de Águila and several others in this posting from that point.

Plaza Principal

On the north side the Plaza are a series of arcades with arched portales. This is the oldest part of the city. If you could see inside the plaster of the internal walls, you would probably find some of the adobe from the 16th and 17th centuries. Like the pre-hispanic people, the Spanish did not tend to tear down old buildings. They just built over them, making modifications according to the styles of architecture prevailing at the time.

From colonial times into the 19th century, the ground floors of these buildings contained merchants' stores. In those days, they bought the grain and other products produced by the outlying haciendas and, in turn, sold them goods imported from Guadalajara, Mexico City, or Europe. The merchants and their families lived on the upper floors. Today those floors contain offices, apartments and a restaurant, while the arcade-level stores sell items like clothing, shoes, and ice cream.

View of the Plaza, looking east. Like most Mexican plazas, this one is clean, orderly, and lush with plants and trees. It reflects the pride that the local people take in their Centro. The kiosco has a rounded metal roof that looks a bit like a World War I army helmet. Most of the trees are carefully trimmed ficus a popular species for plazas. Ameca's Plaza is not bordered by streets full of cars. Instead,  andadores (pedestrian-only walkways) create a serene and leisurely atmosphere, free of exhaust fumes and auto frenzy. 

Another view of the Plaza's north side. Under its arcade, this building contains a pharmacy, a small grocery called an abarrote, and an ice cream store. Ice cream is incredibly popular in Mexico. Mexican towns, no matter how small, almost always have at least one place to buy ice cream on their plazas. Plaza de Ameca has several.

In the lower right, you can see a awning-covered vendor's cart selling small bags of snack food. To the left of the vendor's cart is a tricycle with a framework on the front for carrying cargo. These are very common throughout Mexico. Gasoline may be expensive, but the power from leg muscles isn't.

The west side of the Plaza is occupied by the Palacio Municipal. Also referred to as the Ayuntamiento, it is the seat of government of the municipio, a combination city hall and county seat. Above its entrance is a tall and very distinctive clock tower, visible from many points of the city. Cast iron benches line both sides of the walkway around the Plaza's gardens. Those situated in the shade of nearby trees are usually the first occupied on a hot afternoon.

Young students practice for Independencia. Mexico's annual Independence Day is celebrated on September 16. Almost everywhere, parades will march through towns. Student groups from every school will lead them, sometimes performing acrobatic stunts along the way. 

The parades will also include marching bands, floats, and groups of local charros on their beautifully groomed horses. Last year's Independencia activities were cancelled due to covid-19, and probably this year's too. However, we have managed to attend most of the celebrations during our fourteen years in Mexico. 

Palacio Municipal 

Carole and our guide stand in front of the Palacio Municipal. The original Palacio was built on this same spot in 1529, but burned in 1914. Although that year was one of the most intense periods of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), I have been unable to determine whether the burning was anything other than accidental. The magnificent Neo-Classic structure above was built between 1917 and 1924. 

Notice the bell hanging between the columns on the second level. Every year, on the evening of September 15, the municipal president will come out on the balcony, ring the bell, and give a speech to the crowd massed in the Plaza below. The same scenario occurs at the same time all over the nation, from the tiniest pueblo to the Capital of Mexico.

These events commemorate the original speech by Father Miguel Hidalgo when he rang the church bell at the pueblo of Dolores (today Dolores Hidalgo) to summon the residents. Hidalgo's famous grito (cry) against Spanish injustice launched the War of Independence (1810-1821). The ceremony with the bell is very moving and well worth attending if you are in Mexico at that time of year.

The ornate tower is crowned with battlements. There is a clock on each of its four faces. Our guide showed us through the whole building, including the office of the municipal president with its balcony and bell. He then indicated he had something special to show us and we walked up several flights of stairs. Carole, being the wiser of the two us, halted at the base of the tower. 

The guide and I began to climb up a tall rusty ladder, laced with cobwebs and covered with pigeon droppings. In a small compartment at the top, he proudly showed me the German-made internal mechanism of the clocks. He claimed it still worked perfectly after more than one hundred years of continuous operation. Sure enough, when I checked the clock against my watch, it was accurate to the minute. 

A student marching band takes break in the shade. Kids are always fun to photograph because they are so spontaneous and responsive. The three in the rear are waving to me with the two-fingered "peace sign". The woman in the doorway, probably their teacher, was keeping a close eye on the group. Not a bad idea, given the rambunctious potential of young boys of that age.

Mercado Municipal

Calle Juarez is an andador that runs along the west side of the Mercado. The Mercado Municipal (Municipal Market) is a long narrow structure that stretches for a block to the north from the Plaza. It is a semi-enclosed building with commercial stalls along each side. These booths sell fruits and vegetables, shoes, cowboy hats, leather goods, various crafts, and traditional foods. People of all ages come to browse. This makes the Mercado fun not only for shopping but for people watching.

Capilla de la Conchita was built in the 19th century. The small chapel faces the Mercado across Calle Juarez, about half way down its length. Despite its small size, the chapel contains an organ in its choir area. La Conchita (the Little Shell) is related to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception and has been connected with miraculous occurrences all over Latin America. I took this shot from atop the Parroquia, which stands on the other side of the Mercado.

The east side of Mercado runs in front of the Parroquia. The arches of the beige building on the right are some of the stalls of the Mercado's east side. An andador called Calle Fray Antonio de Cuellar runs along this side of the Mercado. This shot was taken from the atrium in front of the Parroquia's main entrance. The view here is to the southwest, toward the Plaza and the Palacio.

Casa de Cultura and its Museo Regional

Fernando was our guide during my 2015 group trip. An intelligent and well-spoken young man, he worked hard to show us the best that Ameca had to offer. I found him through the municipio's tourist office. Almost every municipio has one of these offices and the staff are always very helpful. Usually, one of them will speak at least some English. Even if they don't, the staff will usually hustle around until they can find someone who can translate. 

The tourist offices can sometimes be a little hard to find, since they are often tucked away in obscure corners. However, you can usually locate them using Google maps, if you put in Oficina Turistica, with the name of the city you are visiting. When we visited Ameca, the office was inside the Palacio Municipal, but that was some years ago and the location may be different now.

The Casa de Cultura houses the Museo Regional. The museum contains a collection of more than 10,000 pre-hispanic artifacts. Most were donated by Profesor Filemón Gutiérrez Ramírez after he collected them over a 50 year period. The Casa de Cultura is located next to the Parroquia on Calle Gutiérrez. 

The hollow ceramic statue above is called a "Storyteller Figure". Many statues in this same posture have been found as offerings to the dead in tombs throughout Valle de Ameca. From their animated faces and hand gestures, archeologists believe they represent someone recounting myths or legends. I can imagine this occurring at night, around a roaring fire, accompanied by suitable oohs and aahs from the assembled crowd. 

Tiny pots, possibly used for paint or body oils. The paint may have been used for illustrations on walls or ceramics. Another possibility is male or female body decoration.  These were part of an array of pots and other ceramics displayed in the museum. Ceramic styles are among the most important clues archeologists use as they try to identify different cultures and the time frames in which they existed. Even fragments, called potsherds, can provide vital information. 

A critical element in an archeological investigation is context. This includes the level of the soil in which the object is found and its position in relations to other objects around it. When artifacts are looted from archeological sites, a tremendous amount of information is lost. After centuries of such looting, Mexico finally became aware of the need to preserve its heritage. To do this, institutions such as the Museo Regional were established.

A big-nosed figure sits in a posture of prayer. The ears are pierced and the hair is worn in a topknot. The figure's arms are crossed, in a stance that is associated with prayer. The sources of many of the artifacts are tumbas de tiro (shaft tombs). These were the burial sites of the Shaft Tomb Culture which occupied settlements in an arc from the coast of Colima, up through Jalisco, then back to the coast of Nayarit. 

They left few above-ground monuments, but their tombs were filled with wonderful statuary. This included people engaged in day-to-day activities, such as cooking, playing music, fondling children and pet dogs, dancing, and chatting with neighbors. Some of the pieces are detailed representations of the houses in which they lived. Many of the tombs have been looted and their contents sold to wealthy collectors. 

This concludes Part 1 of my two-part Ameca series. The next part will take a look at the Parroquia Santiago Apóstol and the history of the area. I hope you have enjoyed Part 1 and, if so, you will leave any thoughts and questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. Please include your email address with any questions so that I may respond.

Hasta luego, Jim